THE EQUESTRIAN VENTURE
Chapter Fourteen: Blood Diamonds
Witten by TheCrimsonDM
The next day Rita walked along side both Rarity and Spike as they traveled through a barren waste, covered in rocks. Every now and then Rita would find a gem sticking out of the earth and pick it up. Although she was serving as a guard for Rarity and Spike, they didn’t seem to mind her grabbing the small gems she found on the ground.
Finally they stopped and Rarity proclaimed, “We are here at last. Rambling Rock Ridge, where the gems are plentiful…but so are the dogs.”
“Dogs?” Rita asked concerned.
“Why that’s why I brought you along darling, you see the last time I was here I was fillynapped by those wretched beasts. They wanted to use me for slave labor, it was a frightful experience, but the elegance of Rarity was simply too much for them, and they found themselves overwhelmed,” Rarity explained.
Somehow Rita doubted that things had worked out that simply, but that wasn’t the important part. Rarity had been kidnapped, or fillynapped rather. That meant that Rita was going to stay on guard, and if any dogs tried to get there dirty paws on her, Rita was going to cut them off.
Rarity’s horn began glowing and then she pointed at some random patch of earth. Spike went in to dig at the spot and after digging he found a treasure trove of gems. Rarity and Spike continued to repeat this routine. Rita stood guard and checked her side bag again. Her daggers were indeed still in the bag, just waiting for her to use them. Something about the daggers made Rita hungry for battle, she closed the bag, and with it her appetite for violence.
***
It was a good several hours before Rarity who had brought a cart with her, had filled it past the brim with shining gems of various colors. A small mountain of gems rose from the top of the cart, and threatened with every move to spill over. Rita had found a nice hill to climb up on so she could scout out the area around them.
The entire time she had been here, she had not seen a single sign of any dogs. They might’ve left this area a long time ago, but something felt off. Rita looked around from her perch and saw Rarity and Spike a little ways away from her position. Rita simply watched as the pony and the dragon talked to each other, although she could not hear their words, she could read their expressions. They were happy, with a hint of something a little more going on. Then Rarity leaned over and kissed Spike on the lips.
Rita stared in disbelief for a few seconds before she realized that even after a few seconds the pair was still kissing each other. Rita quickly looked away feeling her face warm up a little. She didn’t realize that what she was actually doing here was making sure that nopony disturbed the young couple’s date. Why didn’t Rarity tell her about this, it was almost like she was trying to keep it a secret.
Suddenly Rarity let out a terrible scream and Rita looked over to see Rarity staring at the ground. A gray hand was sticking out of the dirt, and had grasped Rarity’s foreleg tightly. Rita quickly jumped off the hill and landed in a roll. She was going to save them, no one was getting hurt on her watch. Rita charged towards Rarity while drawing her daggers from the side bag.
The second Rita caught up with Rarity and Spike, she swung down and stabbed the hand with one of her daggers. The hand was pinned down as Rita held her knife in place. Rita quickly looked up at Rarity and said, “Get to the Hill, it’s got a solid base. GO NOW!”
Rarity and Spike began running towards the hill and Rita pulled her knife free and took a few steps back. The hand disappeared back underneath the dirt. The ground began shifting in front of Rita and then the ground sunk inwards creating a small hole. Rita stared at the creature that climbed its way out of the hole.
The creature had elongated arms that dragged on the ground, much smaller hind legs then he should have for its height, and it wore a red vest. Its head was very dog shaped and its hand was bleeding from where Rita had stabbed it. This thing looked strong, and there was no doubt in her mind that it could easily crush her with its hands, let alone what its claws could do.
Rita took a defensive combat stance, and watched as the dog stared at her. The dog’s face was a mixture of pain, and anger. He spoke slowly, and with a growl in his voice, “You, you hurt dog. We only want pony. Not you, you are… monkey, you are useless to dog. Why you attack dog?”
Something inside Rita was breaking; an old feeling was stirred at his words. She felt that the way he spoke felt like he had no respect for Rarity or her freedom, and considering the fact that they had actually captured her in the past. Rita could only imagine what dark things happened in those tunnels, and as she thought about what they could do to Rarity, she felt that old feeling come back in full force.
Rita grinned as she brought the golden dagger up to her lips. The blade coated with a red liquid. Rita licked the blade, tasting the coppery flavor of the dog’s blood on her weapon. The dog’s face turned sour as it said, “Why you do that? That is not what monkey supposed to do.”
“Mmmm, Dog. It’s been awhile since I’ve eaten it,” Rita said wickedly as she lowered the weapon.
The dog’s eyes grew wide and it took a few steps back before saying, “You, you are crazy. You stay away from dog.”
“After all the horrible things you did to her, I think not,” Rita said in a low voice.
The dog began to turn just as Rita sprang forward and kicked the dog in the gut with enough force to knock the creature onto his back. The dog began sitting up and Rita ran forward and kicked him in the face knocking him back down.
Rita looked around and noticed that there were two more holes appearing and two larger dogs climbed out of those. They both wore gray vests, probably some kind of ranking system. Rita turned to face them and ducked as one of them swung at her, the blow going right over her head. Rita then jumped back and threw a fireball at the dog that was now left open from over extending his attack.
The fireball exploded against his chest sending him rolling back a good fifteen feet before he stopped. The last dog looked at her with surprised eyes for a second before charging and Rita jumped into the air. As the dog got within distance, Rita kicked him midair in his fat face. The dog was sent off his feet and onto the hard ground floor.
The three dogs stayed down and Rita walked up to the one she had taken down first, the one with a red vest. She kneeled down and brought her knife to his throat. She looked at the creatures hand, from where had cut it. She could see the padding on the palm of his hand and realized that these were not quite hands, they were closer to paws. The blade had gone straight through his paw and out the other end. Painful, especially considering how the blades were curved.
Something was telling Rita to finish it, to press the dagger down and end the dog. Something else, a kind and gentle voice in the back of her mind was telling her to show them mercy. It was so much easier to fight constructs; living creatures were always harder to kill.
“Swear that you will never attack an innocent pony again, and I will let the three of you go,” Rita said.
“Dog promise, never to attack pony ever again. Please don’t kill dog,” the dog begged.
Rita stood up and returned her blades to the side bag. Rita then turned and left towards her friends who were hiding on the hill watching Rita. Rita looked back at the dogs, the one who had been hit by the fireball was only limping after the attack, he was tough. The other two were disoriented but they returned back down their holes. The holes then closed up after them.
Rarity and Spike met Rita after that and Rarity quickly attached herself to the cart she had brought with her. Rita followed in silence as they began the return trip to Ponyville.
“Please don’t tell anypony about me and Spike,” Rarity said in a quiet tone. “I believe that Twilight might be angry with me…”
“I won’t tell anyone. Just don’t go around telling ponies about this fight. I didn’t really like it when Rainbow Dash told you guys about the castle thing. It’s nicer when we don’t have to talk about this crap,” Rita said.
“I promise, it would only be rude to talk about your heroics here today without your permission,” Rarity replied.
“This wasn’t heroic, this was a fight…a brutal contest to see who was the bigger monster. Those dogs or me. I guess that I’m still the top dog, so to speak,” Rita said quietly.
Rita’s mind was now thinking on about things other than the gems, or the kiss. She almost killed that dog, it was scared of her, and she still wanted to go back and hunt it down. It was wrong, and she knew it…but she still felt that urge inside of her. It wasn’t because she was human that she felt this way, it was because she was a soldier, and killing had become a way of life for her. If even a single enemy escaped, then that would risk the entire mission. She truly was a monster inside.